Understanding the SharePoint limit for unique security scopes per list or library

Question

From the documentation:

The supported limit of unique permissions for items in a list or library is 50,000. However, the

recommended general limit is 5,000.

I am interpreting this statement in two different ways, and I would like clarification on the correct interpretation:

1. The 50,000 limit is an aggregate of each permission on each document (e.g 5000 documents each with 10 authors reaches the 50,000 limit)
2. The 50,000 limit applies to individual items (e.g 50,000 documents each with 1+ author reaches the 50,000 limit).

Answer 1

Hi Customer,

Good day! Thank you for posting to Microsoft Community. We are happy to help you.

Based on your description, allow me to provide you with the information.

The statement 2. The 50,000 limit applies to individual items (e.g 50,000 documents each with 1+ author reaches the 50,000 limit) is the correct statement.

The SharePoint Online limit of 50,000 unique security scopes per list or library refers to the number of items (such as documents or folders) that have unique permissions, not the total number of individual users or permission entries.

In other words, if you break inheritance on an item—meaning you assign it permissions different from the parent list or library—that item counts as one unique security scope.

So, 50,000 items with unique permissions would reach the limit, regardless of how many users are assigned to each item

Microsoft also recommends keeping the number of uniquely permissioned items below 5,000 to maintain optimal performance.

Exceeding this recommended threshold can lead to slower performance and administrative challenges, even if you're still under the technical cap of 50,000.

If your use case requires more than that, it's best to consider reorganizing your content across multiple libraries or using groups to manage permissions more efficiently.

If you think my reply is helpful to you, please remember to mark it as an answer. 

This helps others in the community facing similar problems. Thanks for your understanding.

Clover-L - MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist.

Answer 2

Hi Customer,

It has been a while and I am writing to see how things are going with this issue. Have you had a chance to check the replies provided? Any update would be appreciated.

Clover-L - MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist.

Answer 3

Hi, I accept the response. Thank you